MAN SUSPECTED OF TRYING TO LURE YOUNG GIRLS INTO CAR SOUGHT IN SAN DIEGO

Police on Thursday released a composite sketch of a man suspected of trying to lure at least four girls into his car while they walked to school in the Mountain View neighborhood this month.

The girls, ages 10 and 11, were followed as they walked home from Emerson Elementary School, San Diego police Lt. Andra Brown said. In each case, the man followed them in his red car and offered them a ride. When the girls declined, he offered them money.

When turned down again, he yelled at them, “Get in the car now.”

The girls ran away unharmed, although the man followed one of the victims to her yard before driving away, Brown said.

The man is described as white or Latino, in his 50s, with short, graying salt-and-pepper hair, a white beard, a slightly darker mustache, wrinkles around his eyes and a thin face with prominent cheekbones.

His car was described as red and shiny, possibly a four-door Mercedes, with tinted rear windows and damage to the right front area.

Kristina Davis • U-T

Firefighters wake up residents, move them from burning house

Rancho Santa Fe

Firefighters woke four young people and got them out of a burning house in Rancho Santa Fe Thursday morning, but a dog died in the fire.

A resident on Mimosa Place, near Linea del Cielo, reported seeing smoke from a neighbor’s house about 6:35 a.m., said Julie Taber, spokeswoman for the Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District.

Firefighters found heavy smoke roaring from the garage and called in a second alarm for more engines.

They discovered the fire was burning through the attic of the 4,500-square-foot house. They went indoors and found the four occupants, in their teens or early 20s, asleep, Taber said.

“Firefighters entering the house is what woke them up,” she said. “It was very fortunate they were able to arrive quickly.”

The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Pauline Repard • U-T

Convicted child molester killed in Los Angeles County prison

An inmate serving a life sentence stemming from the sexual assault of a child in Oceanside was killed Tuesday in his prison cell in Los Angeles County.

Francisco Javier Aguilar, 36, was found dead in his cell at the California State Prison in Lancaster after 1 a.m., authorities said. He had a cable wrapped around his neck, The Los Angeles Times reported.

The cause of death has not been released.

Aguilar’s cellmate, Aaron Alvarez, 42, has been arrested in connection with the slaying. He is serving a life term in prison on a 2008 murder conviction in Kern County.

Aguilar had been serving a life sentence since 1999, when he was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

He was arrested in 1998 after he called 911 to report that the 18-month-old girl he was baby-sitting was having seizures, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported at the time. Oceanside police found bruising on the girl, and a hospital exam showed she’d been sexually assaulted, authorities said.

Kristina Davis• U-T

Parolee who slipped onto airplane at Lindbergh pleads not guilty

San Diego

A parolee who breached security and boarded a SkyWest commuter jet at San Diego International Airport pleaded not guilty Thursday to three misdemeanor charges in San Diego Superior Court.

Marc Rory Duncan, 38, was charged with unlawfully tampering with airport security devices, entering a restricted area, and illegally activating a security alarm. He was ordered held on $15,000 bail.

Airport officials said he forced his way through a security door near the baggage claim area of the commuter terminal around 11 a.m. Tuesday, walked onto the tarmac and then on to a plane bound for Los Angeles.

Harbor Police arrested Duncan after he walked off the plane following a head count by flight attendants that showed one more passenger on board than the ticketed number.

Duncan had been released the day before from prison, where he was serving time for violating probation on a theft conviction.

Greg Moran • U-T

Police arrest four suspects after woman attacked in Imperial Beach

Imperial Beach

At least four intruders ransacked an Imperial Beach resident’s home, punched her and covered her head with a blanket Wednesday morning, sheriff’s officials said.

Two women and two 17-year-old boys were later arrested in San Diego in connection with the home-invasion robbery.

A group of adults and teenagers knocked on the woman’s door on Calla Avenue, and when she opened it, one male punched her in the face, sheriff’s Sgt. Ted Greenawald said.

The strangers forced their way indoors, threw a blanket over the woman’s head and forced her to go from room to room while they demanded to know where her valuables were, Greenawald said.

They left with electronic equipment, clothes, jewelry and small furnishings. The victim called the Sheriff’s Department with description of the robbers and their two vehicles.

Deputies tracked the vehicle registrations to the same residence on Walpen Drive in the Nestor neighborhood of south San Diego, Greenawald said. One car was leaving when deputies got there. A man ran from the car and escaped but two women, Nicole Gracia, 20, and Jessica Boyles, 26, were arrested.

Detectives obtained a search warrant for the residence and arrested two teenage boys. Almost all of the stolen property was recovered, Greenawald said.